OUR VIEW: Specific-issue comment a bad idea

A Utica Common Council idea to limit public comment at meetings to specific topics is ill-conceived. The council should heed Councilman Frank Vescera's advice and maintain the status quo. At a meeting last week, the council discussed ending the open period where anyone who signs up can address the group, and instead would inv...

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Uticaod

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Posted Jan. 15, 2014 at 3:15 AM

Posted Jan. 15, 2014 at 3:15 AM

A Utica Common Council idea to limit public comment at meetings to specific topics is ill-conceived. The council should heed Councilman Frank Vescera's advice and maintain the status quo. At a meeting last week, the council discussed ending the open period where anyone who signs up can address the group, and instead would invite speakers. The council president and majority leader would then informally poll the members on whether they wanted to hear from the speaker.

Bad plan. Even though there is nothing in the state's Open Meeting's law that requires public bodies to have a public comment period, it's the right thing to do. Council members are elected representatives of the people, and they have a moral obligation to listen to the concerns of those people — no matter what those concerns may be. By restricting comment to specific issues of the day, some people with legitimate concerns might never be heard.

It is reasonable, of course, to limit the public comment time period — after all, the council must tend to business — but it is totally unreasonable to restrict discussion. That's not what democracy is about.